How Did This Indiana Hospital End Up Refusing Care to a Woman Because She's Transgender?

How Did This Indiana Hospital End Up Refusing Care to a Woman Because She's Transgender?

Erin Vaught headed for Indiana's Ball Memorial Hospital when she found herself coughing up blood. When she arrived at the emergency room, she was "treated," all right. With transphobic behavior by the hospital staff, who eventually refused her care.

In a disgusting episode of the exact opposite of the Hippocratic Oath, hospital staff laughed and taunted Erin over being transgender. One nurse asked Erin's wife Amanda whether Erin "was a he or a she? Or a he-she?" Others referred to her as "it" and a "transvestite." And then Erin was told she could not be treated because of her "condition." No, not her medical condition, of which Erin didn't know what the problem was (hence the visit to the hospital), but her "transvestite condition."

Ball Memorial Hospital, whose Facebook page was flooded with messages after Erin posted about it, says it prides itself on "compassion," "respect" and "customer care/service." It does not have a policy including transgender people.

Read more: http://www.queerty.com